Space may be the final frontier, but as technology progresses, that final frontier is getting closer and closer. For some, that means commercial space flights in the next five to 10 years. For others, the goal is a lot more attainable. Also, it’s a lot more delicious. We’re talking about space beer, folks.
Now, we’ve written about space beer a couple of times lately (if you’ve missed our previous coverage, check out articles on this fascinating subject here and here), but this time has the real potential to change one lucky winner’s life. No, you’re not going to get blasted into space (yet), but Vostok, which is a collaboration between Sydney-based brewery 4 Pines Brewing Company and space engineering company Saber Astronautics, is giving one person the chance to feel what it’s like to drink a beer in space.
Basically, Vostok wants to turn you into Buzzed Aldrin.
The company won’t be sending the winner all the way to outer space, but they will be sending them on a Zero Gravity Corporation (Zero G) Weightless Flight. Zero G flights take place in a modified Boeing 727, which soars to 32,000 feet and makes parabolic arcs to recreate the feeling of weightlessness. It’s during this flight that you will test the space beer (more on that in a sec).
In order to be chosen, eager entrants will need to do a couple things. First, you’ll have to fill out this form, which includes a 50-word essay on what type of space beer you’d want. Next, you’ll need to donate $90 to the Vostok Indiegogo campaign (the equivalent of buying a bottle of the space beer), which will go live April 2018.
It needs to be noted here that the contest is only open residents of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Within those areas, residents in Arizona, Alabama, Connecticut, Maryland, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Northern Ireland are excluded. If you live outside of the three, you’ll still be able to gain a variety of perks from the campaign, just not the grand prize.
Vostok, which has been around for seven years, has already tested a variety of aspects of space beer, like whether alcohol is safe for people to drink in space, whether you can actually create a beer that can be drunk in space, whether this beer will taste any good. (Yes, yes, and it does.)
The final stage — which they are at work on now — is developing and manufacturing the bottle that will hold the space beer. This is where the Indiegogo comes in.
The grand prize, which is valued up to $20,000, will include “a return flight from either of these three regions to Cape Canaveral, Florida; accommodation for three nights in Florida; and a seat on a ZERO-G Weightless Lab parabolic flight,” according to the company.
If the Indiegogo campaign does not meet the funding goal, the winner will receive a consolation prize of $1,000 USD. Translation: Find every one of your friend who loves beer and has $90 to spare and get them to enter. If one of you wins, everyone wins. Well, one person really wins, but the winner can deal with that later. From the Zero G Weightless Lab.
To enter the competition, click here.
